Baby P hospital ordered to look into ‘cover-up’

THE health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has ordered Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children to look into allegations that it had covered up criticisms in a report that had found a “clinically risky situation” in its service for child protection cases.

A report on Dr Sabah Al-Zayyat, a locum paediatrician who had failed to spot the signs of the serious abuse of Peter Connelly, found that the Great Ormond Street community service where she worked in Haringey, north London, was “clinically risky” and of “grave concern”.

Peter, known as Baby P before he was publicly identified, died in north London in August 2007 after a catalogue of abuse. Al-Zayyat failed to spot the child’s broken back during an examination.

The serious warnings in the Great Ormond Street Hospital report were edited out by Jane Collins, the former chief executive of the hospital, and Judith Ellis, the former director of nursing, before